New Employee Toolkit

From the President and Vice-Chancellor

Congratulations on your appointment to the University! Welcome aboard! Today, you join an outstanding community of faculty and staff who aspire to the highest academic and scientific standards, the hallmark of all leading universities.

We're delighted to have you on the uOttawa team and hope you draw tremendous satisfaction working alongside your colleagues in furthering not only our teaching and research mission, but also our goal of putting students first.

Of course, your new colleagues in the University community look forward to getting acquainted with you. May your employment at uOttawa prove fulfilling and stimulating, prompting you to take advantage of the many opportunities to contribute and grow, both personally and professionally!

New Employees

When you arrive at the University, you have one key task — figuring out your new environment. In fact, you have two environments, your unit and the University itself. Your unit will complete your initiation according to its standards and requirements. Here, we want to help you understand the University itself. Let’s look at the welcome letter you have already received.

The welcome letter contained the following:

• Your employee number and how to use it with University Web sites, especially VirtUO.
• Your email address at the University and how to log in to your account.
• How to contact the Human Resources.

If you have not received the letter, email HRinfo or call 613-562-5832.

Here are the steps to follow to better understand the University

1- Visit Human Resources

Your first step is to visit Human Resources in Tabaret Hall as soon as possible to get your employee card (with your photo).

Bring the following:

• A cheque or deposit slip from a Canadian financial institution with the number of the account in which you wish your pay to be deposited (if you bring a cheque, write “void” across it). You can email us your bank information.
• If you are not a Canadian permanent resident, and do not have provincial health coverage, bring your work permit and request the mandatory insurance coverage.
• If you have signed a contract, we suggest you bring a copy of the contract.

2- Explore your employee benefits

Take the time to learn about the benefits to which you are entitled. Here is a partial list of those you are probably entitled to: a few weeks of annual leave, a pension plan, basic insurance and supplementary insurance (life, accident, dental, etc.), tuition fee support for you, your spouse and dependents, French and English language lessons, Sport Services, access to the library, etc.

There are about fifteen employee groups at the University; the benefits are similar for each, but there are some differences. Learn about your benefits through MY-INFO. The system will first ask you to confirm the group to which you belong and then display the list of benefits for your group.

Some employee benefits are optional. To make good decisions about your future, you need to learn about all the benefits offered.

3- Sign your forms

If you are eligible for benefits, our insurance provider, Canada Life will email you to enroll you in our benefit program and confirm your personal information, such as the name of your spouse and children, the benefits your spouse may already have, etc.

You will need to make some decisions about your benefits package. The following documents may help you:

• Accident Insurance Plan Application and Beneficiary Designation form.
• Income tax forms (TD1 and TD1-ON) to claim your personal federal and provincial income tax credits income tax credits.

4- Register for mandatory workshops

Because governments and the University need to ensure everyone respects standards and understands his or her role, a number of workshops are mandatory. The University considers accessibility standards, prevention of violence (including sexual violence), human rights, diversity and inclusion, health and safety at work and management excellence to be very important.

Your supervisor will give you the time to follow the mandatory training during working hours.

To review and register for the mandatory workshops, log in with your employee number.

5- Read more about the University

The following sites and documents are very informative. Your supervisor will give you the time to familiarize yourself with University facts and documents during working hours.

• For more information about compensation, pensions, performance management, awards and collective agreements, see MY-INFO.
• To update your personal and emergency contact information, see My HR Profile , You can also download your T4 statement and view your pay history.
• Campus Maps.
• Do you want to take a day off? Are you sick? Talk to your supervisor and then enter the details in FAST, our leave management system.
• A tip: Are you looking for University information and can’t find it? Here’s a solution. Go to your favorite search engine (say, google.ca or bing.ca) and then type "uottawa" followed by key words such as uottawa tabaret, uottawa bike, uottawa human resources, etc.
• And a last word: By exploring the Human Resources website, you will receive all the help necessary to have the best possible work experience. Bookmark it.